The effectiveness of inquiry-based learning by scaffolding students to ask “5 why” questions

Abstract

This study aims to research on the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning from Scaffolding theory by self-made bread course. The Inquiry-based learning puts more emphasis on scaffolding learners to ask “5 Why” questions step by step during the process of making bread, therefore we developed “the fragrance of crystal bread” as a teaching module by blending approach involving 4 activities such as 1.rearching on the origin of bread, 2.visiting the instructional resource center of the bakehouse by making bread from using frozen dough, 3.making bread from using powder, 4.demonstrating the self-made bread. Qusai-Experimental Study was used in this study. Two groups of students from the fourth grade in the same school were selected. The experimental group received Inquirybased teaching by the teacher to scaffold them to ask “5 Why” questions; the control group was taught via the Didactic Instruction Method by encouraging asking questions in 20 classes. After the course, a learning achievement test and Inquiry-based learning examination were used in the experiment to assess the students’ proficiency in both treatments. The results were summarized as follows: In terms of learning achievement test, no significant differences were found. Both groups got good grades. But the experimental group had significant superior performances than the other group on inquiry-learning. They can specify their problems to think how to solve the problem constantly according to the details while making bread and apply all the skills learnt from bakehouse, especially in controlling the time of fermenting dough by kneading, how to stuff bread properly, how to control the oven and making different shapes of self-made bread.